


True Colours

by Taliesin_niseilaT



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Mostly Canon Compliant, Romance, Sad, Secret Identity, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-09
Updated: 2017-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-23 04:06:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9640037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taliesin_niseilaT/pseuds/Taliesin_niseilaT
Summary: Julian will always remember the exact moment his world changed. The day he first saw colours. The day he met his soulmate. Only - nothing’s ever easy in Julian’s life, and this is no exception.





	

_October 2016_

 

He should have known screwing with the timeline was going to have consequences. It’s not like it hasn’t happened to him before. Now that he’s decided to undo Flashpoint he just wants to get it over with so he can get rid of that smug bastard Thawne. He’s deliberately not thinking about his mother’s impending death. There will be plenty of time for guilt, later.

 

In the eerily quiet moments after his return, Barry immediately knows something is wrong. It takes a full second for him to register it.

Thawne’s suit is yellow. The trees around the house are green. And the next morning, the sky above Central City is bright blue.

***

 

_One year earlier_

 

Julian will always remember the exact moment his world changes. He’s only been in Central City for a couple of weeks when he’s in a large store targeted by a crazy meta. The building is crumbling down around him and there is no way he’ll get out in time. Until there are strong arms carrying him out and after a lifetime in black and white, Julian sees colour for the first time. The Flash drops him off a block away from the danger zone and Julian stares at him for a long moment – the red of his suit and his green eyes. The man stares back, just as awed because he too sees colours now. ‘Your eyes are blue,’ he whispers.

‘Thank you – for the save,’ Julian says. ‘No worries,’ the Flash replies before running off to save more people.

 

Colour seeps into Julian’s vision gradually after that. He knows what that means. The Flash is his soulmate. He also knows he has more questions than answers. Julian doesn’t like metas, doesn’t understand or trust them. But apparently he’s destined to surrender himself body and soul to one. That’s certainly a shocker. He also feels at a disadvantage. The Flash has seen his face, will know him when they meet again. Julian’s running in blind with only the memory of a red mask and wide green eyes. Any tall, lean guy on any street could be him.

 

Landing a great job at CCPD is an excellent distraction. He gets to do the work that he loves while snarking at his new colleague, Allen. The guy’s got potential, if only he’d show up to work on time occasionally and manage to stay there for the rest of the day. Allen is nervous around Julian because he doesn’t let him get away with that shit. Apparently the rest of the precinct does.

 

Being the resident metahuman specialist means it’s unavoidable that he and the Flash cross paths regularly. They share fleeting moments of staring at each other in wonder but it’s weeks before they find themselves alone together. ‘I’m Julian.’

The Flash hesitates. ‘I’m... Call me Henry.’

‘So that’s not your actual name,’ Julian presumes.

‘It’s my middle name,’ Henry admits.

‘Can I see your face?’ Julian imagines he’ll start begging soon. But Henry shakes his head. ‘It’s safer if you don’t know.’ With that, he’s gone. Damn that speed of his, because it assures him an out every time they meet, every time Julian asks him who he is.

 

CCPD has an emergency contact number for the Flash. They work together – it’s self-evident that such a number exists. It takes Julian two days of sneaking around, but he finds it. He needs another five days to work up the courage to send Henry a text.

 

_Please will you meet me? J_

Julian doesn’t have time to get nervous because Henry’s reply is instantaneous.

 

_I’ll be on the roof of CCPD in half an hour._

‘Nice view,’ Julian tells the Flash when he sees him looking out over the city.

‘You can see the river from here,’ Henry replies and for a few minutes, they’re just two guys leaning on the parapet at the edge of a roof, admiring the view and the night sky. They talk and laugh and Julian can almost see Henry’s face now, though it’s still hidden under his mask. There’s something achingly familiar about him. Julian turns to him and says, ‘Henry, have I ever met you – without the mask?’

‘Julian –’ And Julian decides he likes his name in the other man’s mouth, even with his modified voice.

‘Please. I need to know.’ Henry swallows nervously. ‘Yes. We’ve met.’

‘And –’ Henry kisses him, just like that, to shut him up probably, but it feels so completely _right_ that Julian can’t bring himself to care about the consequences. He melts into Henry’s arms, kissing him back with a rare fervour until the other man disappears. Of course he does. Julian stays behind on the roof until his heartbeat slows down to a normal rate. He’s never been kissed quite like that before. The kiss plays on his mind for weeks.

 

The next time they meet, Julian is ready to confront Henry and get him to listen.

‘Wait.’

Henry stops and turns around, green eyes cautiously trained on Julian.

‘Look, whether you like it or not, we’re soulmates. I just want to put that out there.’

‘I’ve put enough people in danger already, I’m not adding you to the list.’

‘That’s bullshit, Henry.’

‘I’m sorry, Julian,’ he says, and he’s gone in a blink.

 

Months pass with little contact. Henry avoids Julian at every turn, only meeting his eyes briefly before looking away from the hurt he sees there.

 

One day, when Allen’s behaving weirder than usual, something changes. Henry saves Julian from Magenta at CCPD but the recognition in his eyes isn’t there. Julian has come to expect that spark, the knowledge of what happened between them even if Henry won’t talk to Julian, let alone reveal himself. But today it’s gone, and it doesn’t come back for weeks.

 

At least he and Allen are getting along a little better now and in a vulnerable moment, Julian catches himself thinking _Anyone would be lucky to be Allen’s soulmate_ and right on the heels of that they go out for a drink. They’re both in a mood and Allen starts talking.

‘I woke up one day and all I saw were colours.’

Julian nods. ‘You met your soulmate. Lucky you.’

‘Yeah,’ Allen chuckles darkly, ‘Yeah I did, and I can’t remember who it was.’ That doesn’t add up, but Julian blows it off because Allen’s always saying weird things.

‘That must be horrible. If it makes you feel any better, my soulmate apparently thinks I’m not good enough for him. He keeps hiding behind a mask.’

Allen frowns. ‘A mask?’

‘Yeah. The great hero of Central City, afraid of showing his face to the man he’s destined to share his life with.’ Julian’s really bitter about this. Allen nearly drops his beer on the floor in shock, his face turning a fiery red for some reason.

‘The Flash is your – how is that –’ he stutters.

‘Yeah, ironic, isn’t it? Fuck.’ He downs the rest of his beer, then asks, ‘How come you don’t remember who yours is?’

‘I was in an accident of sorts a couple of months ago. I lost some time.’

‘Sorry to hear that.’ Allen’s weird tendencies are starting to make a bit more sense now.

‘I just wish I knew who it was.’

‘Because he knows who you are. I know what that’s like. Can I get two more beers please?’ Julian asks the bartender. He touches his bottle to Allen’s and says, ‘To being in the same boat.’

Allen smiles. ‘To new friends.’

 

The next time Henry rushes in to save the day and pull him out of Killer Frost’s icy claws, the spark is back. He talks Snow down like they’re friends, and Julian files that knowledge in the back of his mind because he so rarely gets to figure anything out about his soulmate. Their eyes meet and Henry says, ‘Julian, are you okay?’ Henry’s eyes drop to his arm and in the next moment they’re in hospital getting Julian taken care of. Henry’s hand brushes his shoulder for a second. ‘Get well soon. We’ll talk later, yeah?’

‘Apparently?’ This is new. Henry smiles and disappears.

 

Right before Christmas everything falls into place. There’s no time to talk about Barry’s reveal in the middle of their fight with Savitar. Julian barely registers it, but when he goes home it hits him like a freight train: Barry Allen is the Flash. Barry Allen kissed him on a rooftop and then forgot. Barry Allen is his _soulmate._ How did that happen? They need to talk, that much is clear. So Julian goes over to the West house and Barry takes him upstairs.

 

Barry has no chairs in his old bedroom so they sit on the bed, which is a little awkward but they could hardly talk about this downstairs in front of Joe and Wally, so.

‘How long have you known?’ It’s the first thing Julian wants to know.

‘Since you told me the Flash is your soulmate. Before that I couldn’t remember.’

‘Did you really have an accident?’

‘No. I changed the timeline, twice. It’s complicated. In the original timeline we had never met. I tried to fix my earlier mistake but things... changed. Most notably, right after I got back –’

‘The colours,’ Julian says.

‘Yes. Because we had been working together for a year.’

‘And you’ll never remember our first meeting?’

Barry looks a little sad, but hopeful at the same time. ‘My memories have been coming back in bits and pieces. I’m working on putting it together. Cisco knows a couple of things, that I pulled you out of a collapsing building and I saw your eyes. But I never told him who you were, so he couldn’t remind me.’

‘And then I dropped that bombshell on you.’

Barry laughs. ‘It took everything I had not to come clean right there and then. Maybe I should have, but I needed a minute to wrap my head around it.’

‘No, it’s okay, I get it. We’d only stopped hating each other five minutes earlier.’ Julian’s eyes are shining with a cautious happiness as he shifts a little closer to Barry.

‘Did you ever talk about this with the... other me?’

Julian nods. ‘I tried, but you wouldn’t tell me anything. You asked me to call you Henry.’

‘Really?’ Barry seems impressed with himself.

‘Yeah. I hated you for it. You knew I was yours but it was like you didn’t care.’

‘I’m sorry, Julian.’

Julian shrugs. ‘It wasn’t you. Well, it was. Right?’

‘Sort of. At this point even I’m not sure anymore. Let’s say it was me but I don’t remember everything. So I’m sorry that I made it seem like you weren’t good enough for me. Because you totally are. I mean look at you, you’re so cute... Anyway...’ Barry blushes fiercely. Julian smiles and reaches for Barry’s hand. ‘You kissed me once,’ he says.

‘I did? Was I good at it?’

‘Very,’ Julian says, leaning forward to meet Barry’s mouth.

‘Oh,’ Barry says when they part. Julian laughs.

 

Julian goes to sleep with a smile on his face, the memory of Barry’s mouth on his, and Barry’s parting words after quite a lot of kissing. _I think we should take it slow, Jules. We don’t wanna fuck this up._

***

_October 2016_

There’s someone else in Barry’s lab. He has no idea who it is, though clearly they don’t get on very well. Apparently Julian and he have been clashing for a year. Barry doesn’t remember ever meeting him. He tries to build a good working relationship with Julian, ignoring the occasional spark of excitement he feels when Julian gets mad at him, and then everything comes together the night they go for a drink in a half-empty bar.

 

Once Julian has provided him with the crucial information that they’re _soulmates_ (how in the world did that happen?), Barry begins to get flashes of another life, memories from what happened before Flashpoint in this new timeline he made. Ever so slowly he puts the pieces together until he has the whole story.

 

_One year earlier_

 

It was supposed to be a routine save: get in, get everyone out, capture the meta, back to S.T.A.R. labs for drinks, done. Everything’s going according to plan until Barry lands on the pavement with a blond man in his arms staring at him like he’s a miracle, and he knows exactly why. He can see the colour of the man’s eyes. The brightest blue in the world – not that Barry’s ever seen blue before. His world has always consisted only of black, white and an infinite number of greys. But there it is. _Blue._ Colours fill up his life now – the luscious green of trees, the vibrant colours of flowers, the red of his suit. Soon enough, Barry falls in love with looking at deep water, or at the blue sky. They remind him of his soulmate’s eyes.

 

_Soulmate._

 

Problem: Barry is seeing Patty Spivot. And she’s pretty great, to be honest.

 

His first act of damage control is to keep his mouth shut and pretend nothing has changed. Cisco knows because he heard Barry blurt out his first words to his soulmate, but he agrees to keep it a secret from the others. It’s hard to act like he still doesn’t know what colour the sun is. He thinks he does an okay job but some people are bound to figure him out.

 

Caitlin’s eyes are particularly shrewd whenever they meet his own and of course she knows exactly what it’s like to have your world overturned in colours. But she also knows what it’s like to lose the person who changed everything for you, and Barry’s not sure how she can bear it, grieving for Ronnie every single day.

 

He doesn’t even know his soulmate’s name.

 

Involuntarily, he begins withdrawing around Patty, becomes quiet in her presence. He knows they won’t last long, not while he has to keep the two most important parts of his life a secret from her: being the Flash and having a soulmate. Not exactly the recipe for a healthy relationship.

 

Especially when said soulmate starts working for the police and showing up at crime scenes, locking eyes with Barry, sending him barely-there smiles. That’s especially funny because Barry recognised Julian the second he walked into the lab at CCPD, and Julian has been throwing snide remarks his way since day one. Barry seems to be in a constant state of nervous anticipation around Julian. He keeps expecting to be recognised and whenever Julian talks to him, Barry stutters and blushes. God knows what Julian makes of that. He’s very strict about the rules and it’s now a lot harder for Barry to run off whenever the Flash is needed. Suffice it to say, they’re not getting along great. Barry coming home from work stressed out puts more undue pressure on his relationship with Patty, and he’s all too aware she’s going to crack any day now, but he finds himself unable to deliver the final blow.

 

The night they finally break up, Patty proves once again how intelligent and kind she is – how good she might have been for him in another life.

‘You can see colours, can’t you?’ she says, and Barry is helpless to deny it. ‘We both know it’s not because of me. I hope you’ll be very happy, Barry. Goodbye.’

 

He’s two days deep into a been-dumped-by-Patty funk when his phone buzzes with a text from an unknown number. _Julian._ It’s a terrible idea to meet him. He might recognise Barry now that they work together and that could be bad because who says Julian is trustworthy? But his soulmate’s pull is strong and he goes anyway, he goes and kisses Julian because he can’t not. Afterwards he runs, because it seems like the only logical thing to do. Barry avoids Julian for a long time after the kiss.

 

Then the events of Flashpoint change everything.

 

***

 

Once Barry has freed Julian from Savitar’s control, they finally have the chance to talk openly and honestly. They’re going to be okay. Barry can tell by the deep blue colour of Julian’s eyes, the day they head out to Coast City and sit by the sea together, wrapped up in each other’s arms.


End file.
